"An understanding of human thought processes, emotions, and behaviors
needs to guide the design of healthcare delivery systems. We would be wise to
apply what we know about human tendencies to build healthcare systems that
optimize both patient behaviors and clinician behaviors. The more we know
about how people naturally work best, the more we can leverage that to address
the current problems related to patient safet . All users of the healthcare
system can benefit from this type of approach." Searl et al 2010.

It is time to talk about people: a human-centered healthcare system Meghan M Searl , Lea Borgi and Zeina Chemali Health Research Policy and Systems 2010, 8:35doi:10.1186/1478-4505-8-35 Published: 26 November 2010 Abstract (provisional) Examining vulnerabilities within our current healthcare system we propose borrowing two tools from the fields of engineering and design: a) Reason's system approach (Reason 1990) and b) User-centered design (Norman and Draper 1986; Norman 1988). Both approaches are human-centered in that they consider common patterns of human behavior when analyzing systems to identify problems and generate solutions. This paper examines these two human-centered approaches in the context of healthcare. We argue that maintaining a human-centered orientation in clinical care, research, training, and governance is critical to the evolution of an effective and sustainable healthcare system. The complete article is available as a provisional PDF. The fully formatted PDF and HTML versions are in production.